CONTEST: Halloween costumes for your pet

I am doing my first contest.  It is short notice, but awesome none the less.

As we all know from previous posts, I want a dog, someone to love me and greet me when I come home. In order to keep my hopes up slash convince Elliot about how awesome a dog would be, I have decided the first competition will be for a gift card of 10 dollars to Target (where they sell pet stuff). Not quite the big leagues - but everything counts!

Send me a pic of your pet (dog, cat, turtle, gerbil, etc) in their Halloween costume. I will vote, and will find 2 random co-worker who does not know any of you vote also - to minimize bias!

Rules:
- You could submit up to 3 pics (of the same animal or of different animals).
- You must submit photos of animals you personally know (you don't have to be the owner, but if the owner submits a photo, you can't)
- You can NOT submit random photos you found online

Send me the pics to my email gaya.myers@gmail.com by Friday, November 4th.

Here is some inspiration:

Source: google.com via Gaya on Pinterest

Source: kohls.com via Gaya on Pinterest

Source: d30opm7hsgivgh.cloudfront.net via Gaya on Pinterest

Thank you cornea burning laser!

Top 10 reasons I am loving my new 20/20 vision thanks to Lasik

 

1. More bathroom counter and drawer space. Sigh-a-nar-a crap (see pic below)
2. Waking up in the morning, reaching for my glasses and realizing I don’t need them
3. Seeing the clock in the morning
4. Getting to wear different sunglasses on a whim
5. Being able to play tennis, jog, etc without the dang glasses shaking around
6. No more expensive contact solution
7. In the shower being confident I am using shampoo in my hair, instead of body wash
8. No more smudges on the eyeglasses – woot woot!
9. Seeing the individual leaves on a tree super far away…loving all these fall colors
10. Having the best vision I have had since 5^th grade

Here is a boat load of crap....mostly contacts, including an entire unopened box....adios!

If you are considering Lasik, start with this website: http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/SurgeryandLifeSupport/LASIK/ucm061358.htm

A reminder to be mindful

A few weeks ago I was in Raleigh visiting the family, when I noticed a small bell hanging from the doorway down to the basement (ie my dad’s shrine). I asked my dad what the bell was for and he explained to me, each time he walks directly in to it, bumping his head against the bell, which then chimes, and serves as a reminder to be mindful. Silly Gaya, I should have figured!

I will have to ask my dad more about what mindfulness means to him, but in the meantime, google told me “In its Buddhist context, mindfulness has three overarching purposes: knowing the mind; training the mind; and freeing the mind.”

Here are photos of the rents demonstrating:

{To bad my mom is too short to be reminded to be mindful!}

Do you Aldi?

So I went to Aldi the other day and have some thoughts to share:

First off, Aldi is a grocery store, according to wikipedia, ALDI is short for "Albrecht Discount", and is a discount grocery store that started in Germany. Interesting enough, Trader Joe’s began from a family trust of one of the two founders of ALDI. There are over 1,000 Aldi’s in the US, and over 9,000 worldwide (while there are less than 400 Trader Joe’s).

Aldi has staples (food, drinks (including wine), toilet paper, and other inexpensive household items. it seemed the majority of the products were their own brand (think trader joe's but not cutesy).

{Pretty crisp!}

{I should have tried these}

{Need a crock-pot?}

Some pro's:

-Not hard to make a decision, there is usually no more than two different brands for one kind of product. You want green beans - BAM - 1 choice, done!

-It was a small grocery store, and more manageable to leave without buying crazy items you never knew existed much less wanted (I have a problem at big grocery stores).

-Near my job

-The prices were good (especially on salsa, hummus, and pita chips).

-The products tasted fine (minus the hummus which was wayyyy to garlicky (although with Halloween and loose vampires..maybe I need to reconsider))

-No decorations and marketing tricks

Some neutral items:

-I think you have to pay for a cart, I was confused slash cheap so just carried stuff in the store and looked like a crazy lady

-They don't give you bags at the end (pro - for the environment, con - for me forgetting my own bags...dangit!)

Some con's:

-Them not taking credit card, and me having to leave the store, find an ATM, and come back! Kinda embarrassing, but I love my CC and the delta miles...

Overall I would rate my experience a B, not B+, not B-. It is no trader joe's on fun-ness, but it was nice on my wallet. My next stop is IGA. What are you thoughts on discount grocery stores? Any winning items I should look out for

Happy 1 year anniversary to my sister Spectra and her hubby Sawyer

Yes, my sister's name is Spectra....don't act like you are suprised.

A year ago today, Spectra and Sawyer got married in Minnesota in a Harry Potter themed wedding.  2 reactions happen when I tell people that it was a Harry Potter wedding, reaction 1, people are insanely jealous and wish they could have a sister as cool as mine, or reaction 2, they roll their eyes and secretly judge it.  I don't care if Glamour magazine said having a Harry Potter wedding is a "don't"

I was skeptical myself, but trust me, they kept it classy.

A few highlights:
1) spells and wands used during the ceremony
2) spontaneous combustion in the ceremony
3) butter beer
4) chocolate frogs
5) gourmet s'mores
6) the savenger hunt "Hunt for the Horcruxes"
7) sitting with our "houses" at the seated dinner
8) the owl decor
9) lots of tweed
10) late night dance party

Here are some pics:

Love you two! Happy Aniversary! Can't wait for Orlando in a few weeks and going to Universal for Harry Potter World! Count down!

cleaning silver - domestic fail

So my in-laws gave Elliot and me this beautiful silver platter serving dish that I think belonged to one of the grandparents.  I wanted to spiff it up and remove any tarnish, and this lady at an antique store told me about a technique that "easily removes tarnish" - well 2 attempts later (approximately 45 minutes, which mind you is about as long as an episode of Mad Men) I still have a tarnished platter.

Here are specific instructions from a university chemisty deptartment (aka legit) - http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/homeexpts/tarnish.html

They even give the fancy formula (I have no idea what this means, but I like the idea of having equations and such in my blog!

3 Ag2S	+	2 Al		6 Ag	+	Al2S3
silver sulfide		aluminum		silver		aluminum sulfide

So chemistry...why did you not work for me!



Here are pic of the process (although, what is the point of looking, since it did not work!)


{Before}

 {The supplies - thank god it was all free!}

 {Action shot!}

 {Chemistry - bubbles!}

 {Hoping this magic would work}

 {The after pic - which looks the same as the before pic = domestic fail}

So can someone just tell me who I can pay to fix this?